Fire on board Russian submarine caused by technical failures, navy commander

Two people were killed in the fire that broke out on board the St.Daniil Moskovsky nuclear submarine .

Photo: Fire on board Russian submarine caused by technical failures, navy commander

As Pravda.ru previously reported the fire has been extinguished, the nuclear reactor has been shut down, and the submarine is being towed on the water surface.

The navy commander said Thursday that the fire on board a nuclear submarine from Russia's Northern Fleet, which killed two sailors and injured one Wednesday night, was caused by a technical failure.

"Most probably it was a short circuit [in the electrical compartment]," Russian Navy Commander Vladimir Masorin said.

He said that two sailors involved in extinguishing the fire died because they did not put on gas masks immediately. The other sailor was affected by carbon monoxide after his gas mask ran out of oxygen, but his life is out of danger already.

The crewmen were still alive when they were recovered from the compartment, but died before a helicopter arrived to take them to hospital, the commander said.

Masorin said the submarine, commissioned in 1991, missed its repair deadline, but its service life was extended as it was in good condition.

The submarine, the Daniil Moskovsky, was anchored off the Rybachiy peninsula, on Russia 's north coast near the border with Finland , when the fire broke out.

Russian naval sources are quoted as saying that the device protecting the submarine's nuclear reactor was activated, and that there is no danger of a radiation leak, BBC reports.

Source: agencies

Prepared by Alexander Timoshik
Pravda.ru